Diaries of a Companion: Mighty Mal
by Hybridbabe
Summary: The life of a Companion is never easy... especially when you are required to deal with a stubborn captain who calls you a w... [Pre Firefly with Out of Gas spoilers]


**Title:** Diaries of a Companion- "Mighty Mal--Sort Of"  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing! The amazing Firefly/Serenity world was created by the genius known to the 'Verse as Joss Wheadon.  
**Author's Note:** This has been a long time coming for me, I must say. I absolutely love Firefly, and it took a pretty much all-day viewing to reconnect my fancies with it. To put it simply, Firefly has enchanted me, in almost the same way Farscape and BSG have. Now, I want to hopefully give back some of that mystery, some of that fantasy, that it has given me. One of the most provocative characters in the series is that of Inara, and from the moment I saw her, I knew she was going to be my favorite. She's the epitomy of strength, and yet, she's also the most beautiful, graceful, and soft characters in sci-fi today. Unlike Aeryn Sun, Kara Thrace, or even Sam Carter, she's so in touch with her feminine side, she's incorporated some of it into her job. And when I set down here, to my new laptop, I knew I wanted to type out something from her side of the story. Also, another enchanting thing about her is her relationship with Mal. They are the typical, dysfunctional odd couple, both playing to each other's strengths and constantly bickering back and forth. Their relationship burns like a solar flare, and I knew that, if I had to, I would write a fiction dealing with that heat between them. So, here we go! Maybe I'll make this into a series...  
**Summary:** The life of a Companion is never easy... especially when you are required to deal with a stubborn captain who calls you a whore (Pre-Firefly/"Out of Gas" spoilers)

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There is little in life that I need. In all honesty, there is nothing I cannot do for myself through my work as a Companion. I am continually needed, well-paid, and often, at times, the connections I have made have satisfied my need for humanly connections. Besides a few, novel whims and deep dreams, I have everything I desire. 

But today, I realized that I have nothing.

Serenity is my home, my salvation, and always has been since I saw it for the first time. No, home doesn't seem quite right, the word nowhere near close to justifiying the way I feel in such a place. Serenity is so much more than that, and I feel it aptly lives up to its name. I feel serenity every moment I spend on here, and to have found this place is to find a long-lost friend. She is far from the cold interior she was made from, and there is never a moment where I regret my decision to rent out Mal's transport pod.

At least, in Serenity's case. I can't say the same thing in her captain's.

Which leads me to today's entry, in which I say not only do I wish to stay here and never truly leave, but also how stupidly noble that man can be. And stubborn; let's not forget stubborn.

It first started when the engine of the ship blew, engulfing the corridors in flames. It almost reached us in the dining hall, which we were enjoying a fantastic meal prepared by the Shepard and Kaylee in honor of Simon's birthday. The blast caught us all off-guard, and flattened Zoe, dealing massive internal injuries to her. As Wash and I tended to her, Mal made the decision to vent the ship. However, when that was done, we received terrible news: the engine no longer worked, and without the engine running, there was no recycling and filtering of our air supply. What we were breathing was all we had left. In order to fix the engine, we had to retrieve some sort of part, one I don't recall the name of now, and install it in the engine. And, as if there was nothing else that could go wrong, Kaylee informed us of the worst thing of all: the part we needed was not in her supplies of machine parts. There was no way to fix the ship at all.

Mal called a meeting, and with the exception of Zoe, laid out his plan: the Tams and Zoe would come with me on my shuttle, while the Shepard, Jayne, Wash and Kaylee would board the other. All of us were supposed to flee... except for Mal.

Mal, the idiot piece of _go se_ wanted to somehow fix Serenity with a part we didn't have, and either did that, or die by hypothermia because the ship's heating and cooling systems were down.

I should have known he'd pull some sort of stunt like this, and I tried to convince him otherwise, pleaded with him to come with us, but he wouldn't have it. No, the great Malcolm Reynolds wanted it this way, and wouldn't hear me say anything in protest. How do you argue with a man who refuses to see any other way than his own?

So, we left. There was nothing else we could do. Mal literally kicked us out of our home.

We were within a few miles of Serenity when Zoe came to, moaning something about a cheap shot, and how the next time, this squirrelly little man wouldn't get the best of her, when we told her the situation and she promptly told us to go back. Although my heart was hammering yes, I knew Mal would have none of it, and if we died, it would be on his conscience in whatever afterlife he'd like to think he'd go to. But, Zoe did point out that, now that Mal was absent, she was the acting captain, and she was ordering us to go back.

It was lucky we did. Otherwise, Mal would have died, either from the cold or the gunshot he received from a ship's captain he managed to flag down.

Now, here I am, watching him cleaning his pistols as if it were some ordinary day. He almost died, and yet, he has the gall to treat it like any other.

Mal is a mystery to me, and I'm not sure I will ever understand him, but for some reason, my heart beats all the same.

It's strange. It's almost as if he means something much more than a friend. But if he does, is that an invitation to pursue him? What about his feelings? What are his dreams? Do they include me?

I may never know. Maybe, I never want to. But I do know this: whenever he needs me, I will be there, in any form possible.

Even when I can't stand him. Especially when I can't stand him.

He does need to be looked after every once in awhile...


End file.
